Brewers Avoid Arbitration With Axford, Badenhop, Estrada

Just coming in from Adam McCalvy via the Milwaukee Brewers website, all three of the remaining unsigned Brewers – those being closer John Axford, reliever Burke Badenhop, and pitcher Marco Estrada – came to terms with the club under the deadline for arbitration filing.

John Axford is one of the Milwaukee Brewers who avoided arbitration today. (Frank Victores-USA TODAY Sports)

John Axford came in with the highest of all the signings so far, netting a $5 million dollar, one year contract with reported incentives. Those reports came without any details of value or how Axford will achieve said incentives.

Last year, the Milwaukee Brewers closer made $525,000.

The next highest signing was for pitcher Marco Estrada. Estrada, who is still somewhere between full-time starter and bullpen specialist, came away from today’s dealings with a one year contract valued at $1.955 million. That’s up from $486,000 in an impressive 2012 contract year.

Burke Badenhop, one of the newest Milwaukee Brewers, signed his one-year deal for $1.55 million – last year with Tampa Bay the reliever cost his former team $1.075 million.

With the deals coming away today, the Milwaukee Brewers have nothing left to settle in terms of arbitration cases. If you’re a fan who worries about the payroll, the fact that the Brewers signed everyone before going to a hearing should be good news in terms of pinching pennies. Truth be told most of these contracts fall pretty well in line with what the experts thought a hearing would grant them.

Even then, the important thing to keep in mind is that the contracts for these three players – plus pitcher Chris Narveson and outfielder Carlos Gomez – are under Milwaukee’s control.

All they have to now is earn it out on the field.

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